#1 Bon Iver

I wasn’t really sure what my first journal should be about, but I made the executive decision to write about the music that I have playing in my ear right now. Now I realize that this music to a lot of people will be weird and way different, but it is my favorite. Kind of a disclaimer, I got a lot of this information by looking up articles and reading a small portion of a biography.

Bon Iver is a group based in Wisconsin started by Justin Vernon, the mastermind behind the group. His first album was “For Emma.” Now, for me at least, this album was the perfect window into the mind of a completely raw Justin Vernon. SO, to get to the point, This music was better for me after I learned about the story behind it. Justin had just been in this very, very long relationship that ended with his heart being broken. After this, he went to his father’s cabin and lived there for about a year (I think). He was there alone. He spent the first half of this part of his life grieving with alcohol, but later pulled out a metal guitar that he began writing songs with. He wrote about his surroundings and his hurt covered his songs with a folky, gloomy atmosphere. His iconic high falsetto has since become his identity in music. Their next album “Bon Iver Bon Iver” is what skyrocketed their fame. The group won a Grammy, and their popularity continued to grow. Justin did not like this though. He believes the rise in fame took away from the music; so he proceeded to quit with no intention of coming back. About 5 years later, He returned with a new album and a new sound. The group added the use of the Messina. This machine was a voice synthesizer that distorted any sound put in it like for example T-pain. However Bon Iver designed it and made it so that is harmonized but was imperfect and had cracks and changes in pitch.

ANYWAYS enough about stuff that isn’t about me because that’s what I’m here for I guess. I started getting invested in this music because of my brother. He told me how cool it was so I gave it a shot. Little did I know this music was going to become my favorite. At the time I was dating a girl named, let’s say, K. It was about end of sophomore year into beginning of junior year. Now I had, had girlfriends before, and I had told girls that I had loved them before, but this was different. I was able to open up and share and be honest about myself more than I ever was before, and I started to truly love this girl. She liked this music too and we would listen to it all the time, mainly the “Bon Iver, Bon Iver” album. But not everything in this world is ever as perfect as it seems. Her family moved away and she was 9 hours away from me. We did 3 months of long-distance, but her new world changed her. After my first trip down to visit her, she called me and promptly broke up with me. For a couple months after that I was still latched on by her messages that told me how much she still loved me, but then her new world consumed her and she turned into a completely different person. The girl I knew as a clean, christian, beautiful girl turned in to a complete partier. She began doing things she said she would never do and didn’t look back.

I understandably was crushed. I had put everything into this relationship. Even though I was considerably young, I had began to fall into a pit I didn’t even know existed. That’s when I began listening to Bon Iver’s first Album “For Emma.” His high falsetto and jumbled lyrics gave me a certain peace that comforted me in ways that I didn’t think was possible. It gave me a look in to the beauty that was in the world even through my pain.

Thanks for reading, like always any sort of feedback is welcomed or even encouraged. I realize I am a pretty ugly rambler and writer, but I hope that I get better as I keep writing. God Bless.